RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To describe the results of treatment of 36 consecutive children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia attending a second level community hospital in the Mexican State of Veracruz. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHILDREN: They were from families with very poor resources seen free of charge. Most (75%) were high risk cases. The most common high risk factors were an age outside the range of 2 to 9 years (53%), a WBC count above 50 thousand/microL (36%) and an L-2 lymphocyte morphology (39%). RESULTS OF TREATMENT: Disease-free survival was 64% at 36 months whereas event-free survival was 47% at 36 months which are low in comparison with the data in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: We believe we were able to obtain good results in the treatment of our leukemic cases which was not only a mostly high risk group but also had to contend with poor nutritional, cultural and socioeconomic conditions and with disease-related factors present in their communities.
Assuntos
Protocolos de Quimioterapia Combinada Antineoplásica/uso terapêutico , Hospitais Comunitários , Leucemia-Linfoma Linfoblástico de Células Precursoras/tratamento farmacológico , Adolescente , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Intervalo Livre de Doença , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , México , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The following is a summary of what was found after setting into motion an epidemiological surveillance system of nosocomial infections occurring in the Pediatrics Ward of a 2nd level general hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The rate of interhospital infections was 7.6 episodes per 100 patients discharged; the most frequent infections were diarrheas (40.6%), urosepsis (14.3%) and pneumoniae (12.1%). The mortality rate was 0.33 deaths per 100 episodes. The average number of days spent in the hospital by the general population is 7.3 days and for infected patients, 24. The germs most frequently found were Klebsiella and E. coli. CONCLUSIONS: The control of nosocomial infections requires more efficient surveillance systems for all hospitals.